How to Finally Clean Your Home and Keep the Clutter from Coming Back

You walk into your home after a long day out, ready to relax and enjoy a quiet evening... if only someone could make the clutter around you disappear. "I'll do it tomorrow," turns into "I'll do it on the weekend." As the weekend rolls around you realize you really will have more time to do it next weekend and the cycle has begun. Clutter has been growing high and reaching out to all corners of your home. I don't know about you but when my home gets in that state I can't even relax. I feel so overwhelmed. I get moody and cranky and want to hide away in whatever the cleanest area of my home happens to be. I simply can't relax until I deal with the clutter.

Get Started

The first thing to do is to just do something. Anything. Don't put clearing clutter off for one more day, one more minute. If the job seems so big that you don't know where to begin, start with something simple and ordinary like cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen. It will help get you in the mood to clean once you see how nice those rooms look.

Get Ready

Now that you are in the mood to clean, decide how you want to handle the total job of de-cluttering. What is all this stuff anyway? Where will you put it as you go through it? I typically make 5 piles. (1) Charity - things I no longer want or need that are in good condition. (2) Trash - broken items or things that are not in a good enough condition to give away. (3) Recycling - all those unwanted papers need a home. (4) Shred - unwanted papers that contain personal information. (5) I have a home in another room - Items that end up in this pile will be taken to their rightful place at the end of your cleaning cycle.

Understand Your Plan

What rooms need to be cleaned... or is it the whole house? Figure out what order you want to tackle things in and allot a day and time to begin each room. For example, "Monday after work I'll go through all the old mail in the basket in the foyer. Saturday morning I'll clean the office." Keep going until you have a day and time selected to tackle each area of clutter. When you prepare your plan be sure you give yourself enough time to "finish" the job. When you are done with a part of the house, items in each pile should be addressed. Charity items should be cataloged and bagged, shred items should be shredded, recycling and trash should be taken out, and items for other rooms should be taken to those rooms and put in their place.

Room by Room

You are ready to dive in. You have a plan and you have a place to put the stuff you're going through. There is nothing stopping you. Go to area 1 on your list and get crackin'. Start with the obvious and work your way down to the smaller clutter. For example, if it's your day to de-clutter the bedroom start by putting all your clean clothes away and making your bed so you can see what else you'll need to do. You can use the bed to make your piles. Be careful not to "finish" a room by re-depositing stray items in another room. Every item you touch should have a place in that room or it should fall into one of your five categories.

Tips to help you make it through

- Don't let your cleaning piles get too tall. If the items to shred stack is getting large go over and shred some of those documents. If your recycling bin is full, put it out and begin a new one. No matter what, anything you put in your piles should be addressed before you move to the next room so you are always starting with empty piles.

- If you are eligible to claim a tax deduction for items donated to charity, please know that today more documentation is required than in years past. For items donated to Goodwill, I always take a photo and make a list. I archive the photos on my computer according to the donation date and use the list to obtain a receipt when I get to my Goodwill drop off center. Save the receipt and the list together. Check the IRS Web site for more information on documenting charitable donations. If you use ItsDeductible by Turbo Tax you are now able to fill out your donations throughout the year online instead of waiting until right before tax time.

- If making piles on the floor or the bed makes it too hard for you to clean the room due to lack of space, then consider getting some large cardboard boxes or garbage bags that you can place in the hallway to separate your items. Be sure to label each container so you don't start tossing recycling in with the Goodwill.

- Keep or Toss - Only you know for sure but try being honest with yourself. If you haven't worn something in forever what are the chances that you will wear it again soon? If you are saving some things for when you lose 20lbs, what do you plan to do to lose the weight? If you are diligent enough to drop 20 lbs then you deserve some new items when you get there, don't you think? If vacation t-shirts or a fancy dress you can no longer fit into have sentimental value but no functional purpose consider taking a photo to save on your computer and tossing the items in the Charity bin. If you have cookware or storage items that you never use give them away and free up cabinet space.

These tips should help make getting started easy and fun. Don't overdo it in any situation. Sometimes, with clutter, we don't fully realize what we are getting into. In places where there is severe clutter, it's easy to underestimate what's required to get the job done. Give yourself enough time to finish each task and break large areas into smaller, more manageable chunks. Once your list is complete every room in your house will be an oasis, and you can come out of hiding.